Fontaine on Land
by LittleBunnyFufu13
Summary: As much as Fontaine Nekton loves living on her family's submarine, the Aronax, she wants to experience what it's like to live above the sea and not constantly having near death experiences. Well, one can only hope. A.K.A. Fontaine goes to high school… on land… What could possibly go wrong? From Cartoon: The Deep. Go on Netflix and look it up ;)
1. Chapter 1

_I cannot believe I'm the first one to post a fic about this tv show. I fell in love with it instantly and have been plagued with little plot bunnies preventing me from sleep ever since I started watching. I only own the plot and ocs that will later appear. I sincerely wish I had come up with this show. Enjoy!_

 **The Friendless Submarine**

"It would be a great learning experience!" Fontaine Nekton followed her mother into the library where her father was hunched over his desk deciphering a new map he had shadily acquired from an ex-pirate. He looked up as she continued trying to convince her mother of her point; as she had been doing so for several days now. "You guys are all about those!"

"I'm just not sure this would be the kind of experience you think it would be," Kaiko said holding firm before her face softened to one of concern. "You've been homeschooled your whole life, Fontaine. I'm afraid if we just dropped you into some random high school you'd not know what to do. Their ways of teaching is completely different to how we do it."

Fontaine rolled her eyes. "Well obviously! I'm pretty sure normal kids don't learn about fossils by almost getting eaten by one!" She said, obviously thinking about the megalodon incident. Well that and that one time with the giant crocodile. Actually, now that she thought about it, she had been _almost_ devoured by a disturbing amount of giant, supposedly non existent, creatures.

"But that's the best part of what we do Fontaine!" Ant bounced into the room, followed by his ever faithful fish, Jeffery, who swam through the tubes that went throughout the entire submarine. Ant got into what faintly resembled a fighter's stance and started throwing what probably was supposed to look like intimidating kung fu moves. "The danger." Kick. "The adventure." Punch punch. "The new discoveries." Here he tried to do a high kick he saw in a Karate Kid film but only succeeded in losing his balance and landing on the floor in a thud.

Fontaine laughed loudly, clutching her sides. "The only current danger here is you making me laugh to death by those moves."

Ant made a face as he pushed himself up and mocked her in a high voice. "The only danger, blah, blah."

Here Will Nekton cut in, bringing the conversation back to what they were discussing previously, if for no other reason than to distract his children from getting into another argument. "I have to say I'm with Fontaine on this one, Honey. She should get to experience what it's like to go to school. I enjoyed my highschool years very much." Here his face become wistful as he thought back to his competitive swimming days. Lost in Nostalgia.

"Be that as it may," Kaiko huffed, "Fontaine is two grades ahead of her age group in most of her classes. It would be pointless to go and be in classes she's far too advanced for." It was true. Living on a submarine had its pros and cons. Pros: you got to see things no one else has ever had and discover fantastic treasures. One of the cons, however, was that there was **a lot** of down time between discoveries and adventures. Traveling from one end of the ocean to the other could take a long time. To avoid being bored out of her mind, Fontaine often worked on her homework (she also spent a lot of time playing her guitar but that was more for destressing). She loved learning new things. This allowed her to be two grades ahead of where she was supposed to be in academics. While normally she was proud of this accomplishment, at this moment she was kicking herself for it.

Here she lowered her eyes and spoke quietly, as if self conscious. "It wouldn't be a waste of time to make some friends my age."

That is what made Kaiko rethink her entire argument. Yet another con of living on a submarine that traveled the world's oceans: There were no other kids to spend time with. She had often worried about this fact, but her children had always seemed so happy with their lives that she had believed they were happy enough without friends. Judging by Ant's face, he agreed with Fontaine. It looks like she had been wrong. She worried her lip between her teeth and weighed the options in her mind. She glanced back and at Fontaine who was still staring at her feet. She made a decision.

"I'll start looking at schools."

The joy that shown on Fontaine's face was well worth it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Mermaid on Land**

The next few weeks had been a whirlwind of planning and preparing that left Fontaine's head spinning. It had been difficult finding and agreeing on a school that fit everyone's requirements. Kaiko wanted a school that excelled in academics while Will was more concerned about the school's swim team. Not that he didn't care about her classes, he assured Kaiko after she accused him of just that, he just wanted to make sure his daughter didn't end up on some awful second rate team. She had to follow in his footsteps after all and how was she to do that if her team couldn't place? In other words, he totally cared more about the swim team.

They finally found what seemed to be the best school for Fontaine. Elephant Bay High School had positive reviews, an excelled academics program, a great swim team, and it was just a stone's throw away from the beach. That was highly important. If they ever needed to pick her up in an emergency it would prove no problem. With everything planned, prepared, and paid for, Fontaine was off on her own adventure.

The Aronax breached the surface of the bay as it pulled into the dock. The occupants of fishing and tour boats watched in amazement as the humongous submarine loomed above them. Several pulled out their phones to snap a few pics and posed in front of it.

Kaiko pulled Fontaine into a large hug. "Are you sure you have everything you need?" She asked for the third time.

Fontaine had exchanged her usually wetsuit with something a normal teen would wear: jeans and a t-shirt. She'd deny it if you asked her, but she felt a little strange not wearing her family's signature wetsuit. She had two large duffle bags, her guitar, and a backpack of all of her belongs resting a foot behind her as she and her mother embraced.

Fontaine pulled away. "Of course mom. I've checked, double checked, and triple checked. I have everything I'll need for the entire school year." seeing her mother's face still showing worry, she went back in for another hug. Squeezing her tight, she continued saying, "Everything will be alright, I can handle anything that's thrown at me, I promise."

This made Kaiko smile proudly. "I never doubted for a second. Just promise to call. Everyday. I don't care if we are in a different time zone. I'll always want to hear from you."

Now Fontaine was tearing up. Who would've thought saying goodbye would be so hard? Suddenly living on land and going to school seemed a lot less worth it. She was determined to stick it out though. She had come this far with convincing her parents and finding housing; she wasn't about to give up now.

Speaking of housing, looking up through her teary eyes, she could see a couple holding hands on the dock apart from the crowds of tourists with cameras. The two were lean and muscled, both having an obvious swimmer's physique. Fontaine recognized them as Jim and Kendra Sanderson. They had only ever spoken through video call, but the two had agreed to house Fontaine during her time going to school. Apparently Kendra had been very good friends with Kaiko during college. Her father had run a diving business right here on the coast that Kendra and her husband now ran together. Kaiko would go out with them on dives to study the marine life in the surrounding reefs.

Will and Kaiko also seemed to notice the Sandersons and wiped away any stray lowered the ramp and descended to the dock, Fontaine making sure to grab her bags and guitar.

"Jim! Kendra! How have you been?" Fontaine's dad asked while he strode over to embrace them. He had to wait his turn though because his wife had beaten him to it and was already hugging and chatting away with her old friend.

"We've been great," Jim chuckled deeply. "It's great to see you in person. I can't believe you and your family of mermaids finally made it up to the surface," he teased with a grin.

Ant and Fontaine stepped forward and gained his attention. "Ah, speaking of the mermaids! It's nice to finally meet you kids in person. Actually I've already this little lady," he said gesturing towards Fontaine. "However you were just a tiny baby so I wouldn't expect you to remember." He winked then grabbed each of their hands and shook them in turn.

Ant grinned in that wild yet friendly way of his. "Nice to meet you too Mr. Sanderson. I've actually been doing extensive research on mermaids lately." He looked over his shoulder as if he was afraid of someone overhearing and then continued in a conspiratorial tone, "I feel like I'm getting close."

Jim smiled widely. "I don't doubt it. You're a Nekton. They're always discovering things that we thought previously were myth." Fontaine couldn't help but think about how right he was. He didn't even know the half of it.

Kendra and Kaiko finally pulled apart from one another and joined the rest of their families. Kendra Sanderson did not hesitate to pull Fontaine into her next hug, almost knocking Fontaine to the ground. "Oh I haven't seen you since you were a baby! Well, I saw you in pictures and the occasional video chat, but look at you! You've become so beautiful! Jim and I can't wait to have you stay with us. We even got the guest bedroom in our house all ready. All you need to do is unpack, and oh! This is just so exciting!"

Fontaine felt like she had just been dragged through a hurricane, and yes, she had experienced that firsthand before. It seemed as if Mrs. Sanderson had the same amount of energy as Ant. She would have thought that was impossible before today, but she had just experienced it for herself.

Jim rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry," he apologized, "she's just really excited to have you stay with us."

Kendra flushed a little bit before smiling apologetically. "What he said."

"No problem. I'm very excited to stay with you too."

Both of her parents broke out in laughs. "You two never change," said Will. He smiled and continued gratefully, "Thank you so much for opening your house to Fontaine. Going to Highschool is very important to her, but we wanted her to stay with someone we knew well while she was here. We really owe you guys."

"What are you talking about?!" Kendra practically exploded. Fontaine felt like she had gotten whiplash. One moment she was completely subdued, the next she was highly animated and loud. "If anyone owes anybody here it's us! Who was it that rescued me when my air tank got caught on that coral reef? Who always tells us where to take tourists for the best experiences? And don't think I don't know about that 'anonymous donation' that was conveniently enough to buy a new engine for our boat after I complained to you that ours was busted."

"Nothing ever gets by you, does it?" Kaiko grinned at her friend.

"Of course not," she sniffed and smiling in pride.

Will cut in. "Well, putting aside who owes who, we are very happy that you are taking our daughter in."

Jim reached down and grabbed one of Fontaine's bags that was at their feet and turned to speak to her. "Well, grab all your stuff. The cars are waiting for us in the parking lot. We'll take all of you to see the house." They were all shuffled past the boats and off of the dock where two jeeps were parked. Each one had the slogan 'Elephant Bay Scuba Tours' written on the sides with the logo of a snorkeling elephant.

She wondered if there was a story behind why this place was named Elephant Bay. It seemed too strange of a name to not have one. Even the High School was called Elephant Bay High. And the mascot, you guessed it, an Elephant. It was strange considering there were no signs of any actual Elephants.

Seeing how they all couldn't fit in one car,Ant jokingly suggested they separate by gender so that the boys could have 'guy talk' in their jeep.

"Do you even know what 'guy talk' is?" Fontaine asked condescendingly?

"No, but if girls can have 'girl talk,' why can't men have 'guy talk?'"

The adults seemed to humor him and piled in to their designated vehicles. After a ten minute drive of listening to her mom and her mom's friend reminisce about college and chat about the Scuba diving business, they arrived at a house practically smack dab on the beach. It was a little home. Two room, two bath, a kitchen, and a little living room. The outside was faded and peeling due to the sea air. Fontaine guessed that if might have been dark blue at some point. Flowers bloomed all over to add bright patches of color to the faded exterior. Two tall palm trees seemed to be reaching for the heavens on either side. As she stood, gazing at the place she would spend the next several months, listening to the waves beat the shore, Fontaine decided she felt right at home and wouldn't want to stay anywhere else.

"Would you like to see your room?" Kendra asked. She looked like she was very excited about showing her something.

Fontaine refocused and nodded. "Sure let me just unload first." they had beaten the boys to the house so it was just her mom, and Kendra helping to carry all the bags into the house. Kendra led the way to a door that had a small pastel mermaid painted on it. It was about the size of Fontaine's fist and utterly adorable.

Kendra threw the door open with gusto to revealing a small room behind the door. There was a white twin sized bed resting against the wall beneath the large open windows. It came with a white nightstand and matching dresser. There was also a closet. However, she barely noticed any of that in favor of the walls. Every single wall was covered in paint that depicted a mural unlike any other she had seen. For a moment it was like she was back in the Aronax, looking out of the large windows into the ocean. Sea creatures of all kinds swam across the the painted ocean on her walls. Whales, dolphins, manta rays, tropical fish, she even saw a fish that looked suspiciously like Jeffrey, and countless others.

Fontaine couldn't even express how happy it made her. She tried her hardest though. "Oh Kendra, It's absolutely stunning. I can't believe you did all of this for me."

Kendra positively beamed, she was so happy Fontaine liked what she did to her room, "I wanted to make it seem like you were still under the waves. After all, we wouldn't want our little mermaid to get homesick," she winked.

The boys came in, having finally arrived and getting the tour from Jim. Ant bounced in excitement upon seeing her room. "Wicked! Fontaine, how come you get a cool room." He turned to Kaiko. "Can we paint my room on the Aronax like this? Pleeeeeaaaaasssse?"

Their mom just laughed. "Perhaps. Although you could always just look out your window and see the real thing." Ant conceded that she had a point there.

After making sure that all of her stuff was put in her room how Fontaine liked it, they all went out to eat. They went to a nice Italian restaurant and took turns talking about recent events and a few of their less secret adventures.

After a few hours, it was time for the majority of the Nektons to leave. Many tears were shed (Ant denies it but he was totally tearing up too) and the last of three hugs were exchanged. Then Fontaine watched as her family boarded the Aronax, her home, and disappeared beneath the waves.

Kendra put a hand on her shoulder. "I know you'll miss them, but have no fear!" Fontaine was beginning to become used to Kendra's upbeat and excitable personality. "We are going to have lots of fun together. I have mountains of ideas of things for you to all, you came here to have new experiences." Her grin was somewhat terrifying, but she was right. No need to cry. She'd see her family again soon. She shouldn't squander the opportunity given to her at this time.

"That sounds great," she said while stifling a yawn. "But first, I need some shut eye. It's getting dark so I don't think we'll be able to do anything on your list."

That mildly terrifying grin made a comeback. "Oh you'd be surprised."

Luckily her husband chose to intervene. "Now now Kendra, Fontaine's probably exhausted. Let's let her get settled in before you take her on one of your crazy adventures."

She pouted. "You take all the fun out of everything."

Fontaine laughed loudly. Those two balanced the other out perfectly. Jim was cool and level headed (though by no means was he boring) and Kendra was a real spitfire, going off every which way her heart desired. She could already tell that his was going to be one interesting school year and it hadn't even begun.

Sorry for the late update. I've been so focused on some of my more read fics that this one kinda got shoved under the rug. I'll try to do better!

 _Amaz24- I'm glad you enjoyed it! Don't worry Finn will play a very big role in this fic ;)_


	3. Chapter 3

**Smoothing Out the Details**

As Fontaine stood in front of her new school for the first time, she couldn't help but feel jittery. It was like a whole school of Psuedanthias bicolors (Jefferys) were swimming laps in her stomach. _Maybe_ , she thought, _this wasn't such a great idea_. Her usual courage and stubbornness had been quelled by her fear of not fitting in. After all, she was very much out of her element… literally. What she wouldn't give to be back in the Aronax, studying whales or searching for clues to finding Lemuria. Even deadly underwater adventures seemed much more appealing than entering this house of learning.

"You aren't chickening out on us, are you Little Fish?" Kendra smiled knowingly as she stepped out of their vehicle. She used her favorite nickname. Fontaine would never admit it, but she didn't mind being called Little Fish. "I promise you, once you take the leap, you'll have the time of your life."

Fontaine heard the challenge in her voice and it rekindled the spark of courage that had momentarily flickered out. "Who, me? Nah I'm just giving the school time to prepare itself to hold my presence."

Kendra smirked at her facade of aloofness. Swinging her bag over her shoulder Kendra strode forward with confidence. "In that case what are we waiting for?" She threw a conspiring wink at Fontaine as she strutted passed. "Let's get a move on."

Fontaine had only known Kendra personally for a few days, and yet she was so grateful and comforted by just her being here. So much so, that Fontaine didn't even hesitate in following her lead. She grabbed her backpack and guitar case and rushed to catch up. Together, they walked through the large, glass front doors.

Fontaine glanced down at her class list and locker info in her hand for what felt like the thousandth time. She probably had it memorized by now, but she refused to part with it for even a second; you know, just in case.

The two of them found the front office, and Kendra immediately started up a pleasant conversation with the older receptionist as they waited. They had a meeting with the principal scheduled an hour before school started. It seemed last minute, but it was the only time the principal was able to squeeze them in since Fontaine had only just arrived a few days ago.

Speaking of the Principal, her office door swung open and a few serious looking adults strode out. They were bickering amongst each other. Before they left Fontaine managed to pick up the words "budget" and "unhappy" leave their mouths.

"Are you two Fontaine Nekton and her guardian Kendra Sanderson?" A tall woman stood in the doorway the other adults had just left. Upon seeing their nods of confirmation she took a step back into her office. "I am Mrs. Hall, the principal here. Come in and be seated."

Fontaine took her time to admire the principal as they took their seats. She was tall and prim, giving off an aura of professionalism. Glasses perched on her hawk like nose and her graying hair was pulled up in a tight knot atop her head. She had the look of a hawk studying its prey.

Once seated Mrs. Hall got straight down to business. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Nekton. We are happy to have you joining us this year and perhaps future years. Now let us discuss the nature of this meeting." She skimmed a paper on her desk before continuing. "I have spoken to your parents about the set of circumstances you are here on. Your parents have informed me of the high possibility of you needed to leave school for several days, possibly weeks, at a time in order to help them with their research. They have assured me that you will stay punctual with all of your school work and, judging by your past academic accomplishments, I'm inclined to agree. However, while many teachers are fine with the situation, this could prove problematic for some of your extracurriculars. I hear that you plan on trying out for the swim team?"

Fontaine sat straight up in her chair. She knew this was a chance to impress Mrs. Hall, and an opportunity to show the kind of student she was. "That is correct. I assure you, Mrs. Hall, that I will take my studies and activities here seriously. I wish to experience everything I can here at your wonderful school." She took a deep breath and continued, "I also understand that in order to accomplish my goals, I'll need to spend as much time as I can _in_ class. This means that I will only leave if my presence is _absolutely_ necessary to my family or if there is an emergency," That last bit popped out as she thought about all of the times her family had gotten into trouble.

Mrs. Hall nodded, an small approving smile upon her thin lips. "Well said, Miss Nekton. I will make a special note on your files that, due to extenuating circumstances, you are allowed to be absent from school for large amounts of time as long as it does not affect your grades. How does that sound?"

"I think that sounds amazing," Kendra, who had been mostly observing till now, said. "And I assure you, I'll make sure she studies hard," she winked.

Mrs. Hall didn't reply, just nodded and then stood from her desk. "Class doesn't start for nearly an hour, but I suggest you walk around and get yourself familiar with the school's layout. You do not want to be late for any of your classes." Her gaze fell upon Fontaine's guitar. "I'd perhaps start with the band room first so you do not have to carry that across campus. If you need a guide, I'm sure we can find a student willing to show you around."

"Thank you Mrs. Hall, but I want to figure it out for myself. I will take you up on your suggestion of stopping at the band room first." Fontaine laughed and added, "It gets kinda heavy after a while."

Fontaine stood up and headed for the door with Kendra following. Just as she gripped the door handle, Mrs. Hall's voice made her freeze. "Oh and Miss Nekton," she turned to meet the principal's steely eyes. After a moment they crinkled up in a surprisingly soft smile. "Welcome to Elephant Bay High School."

Warmth flooded through Fontaine at those words. She left that office with a large smile. All nervousness was gone and she was ready to take this school by storm. Get ready high school! You have a Nekton in your midst!

 _Thank you for reading! Sorry for the slow update, I've spread myself a little thin with all of my fics and homework. While this is one of my favorites the other ones have demanded more of my attention. Next chapter will be Fontaine's first day of school so stay tuned!_


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